Photo by: David R PanKing’s Luke Bobin celebrates his team’s berth to the state regional tournament.

King’s punched its ticket to the state regional boys basketball tournament with a thrilling come-from-behind 71-67 victory over Overlake in a 1A Bi-District game Wednesday, Feb. 14, at Mountlake Terrace High School.

The winner-to-state regionals/loser-out game was a wild affair as the teams traded double-digit leads before the Knights made a successful final push in the final couple of minutes of the fourth quarter.

“That’s as good a high school game as I’ve ever coached,” King’s coach Rick Skeen said. “Back and forth. It’s a shame that somebody’s season ended. That’s one of those you wish somebody didn’t have to lose.

“I’ve never seen a game like that. Not little swings but huge swings. Big swings. Down 15 and then you’re up 10 and then down 8. Our kids just kind of kept grinding. They just kept competing.”

King’s followed up Wednesday’s victory with a 72-58 win over Mount Baker in the third/fourth place game Saturday, Feb. 17, at Mountlake Terrace High School. Both teams already qualified for state regionals.

King’s is scheduled to face Lakeside (9 Mile) in a loser-out 1A state regional contest at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 23, at Medical Lake High School in Medical Lake.

Trailing 66-65 with just over a minute left in the game against Overlake, Zevenbergen hit a shot to give the Knights a 67-66 lead. Overlake later had an opportunity to tie the game after being fouled during a missed 3-point attempt. But the Owls missed the first throw and the Knights held on for the victory.

“Every guy who stepped on the floor was huge tonight,” Skeen said. “It wasn’t one guy. It was a collective team effort. I’m just proud of them to get to the final 16. We were 1-9 in the middle of the year.”

Zevenbergen sees the team’s success in the Bi-District tournament as a major step for a program that came into the season in a rebuilding mode.

“This victory was huge because we lost seven seniors this last season,” Zevenbergen said. “I feel like we can accomplish anything at this point.”

The Knights tried to stay positive against Overlake even when behind by double digits.

“Sometimes it felt like we were going to lose and the team got real down,” Zevenbergen said. “But we found hope inside this team and we accomplished our goal – that’s going to state.”

King’s have faced elimination in three loser-out game and came out with the victory in all three.

“It takes a lot of toughness,” Skeen said. “I’m proud of them for that. We’re just going to keep trying to get better.”